The main thing about living in Europe is being able to travel all over. It's not necessary to go thousands of kilometres just to see something you've never seen or experienced before. Each country has something that can amaze. Portugal sure does. That's where me and my classmate have been to. Some people say that USA is the land of opportunity. But people change so countries do. And we were happy having such a great chance for two months to live and work in Portugal. Thanks to the European Union's vocational training programme «Leonardo da Vinci». Living without parents and girlfriends for a long period of time – the first challenge that comes to mind leaving your homeland. But not for us. We were longing for work. Work in other country? Even better!

Despite all the worries concerning our trip, we managed to get used to living in Portugal, its people, the language they speak. In their way of life, we adapted more easily we had expected. After first three days being there we knew the streets around our apartment. Having map we explored some area within the city of Lisbon. And, surely, good knowledge in english played a great part in everything from living to working. No doubt, portugese language is one of the most used languages in the World. And, I must say, it is fast to learn. Offcourse, we didn't have much time to learn it good enough. But speaking portugese was vital in some cases. In cases when we didn't have any chance to find someone who speaks english. Imagine an old portugese man fishing at the ocean bank. Do you think he might speak english? I think not. Having that idea I always carried a small book with common portugese words and expressions I was using a lot.

Portugese people are very friendly and optimistic. Besides, they are united in one thing – football. Moreover, they are obsessed with it. You say one magic word «football» and they are interested in talking to you. It is a coincidence that our practice took place at the same time as the World Cup 2006. Alas, portugal team didn't win the championship. But if you could see the crowd of excited fans, you wouldn't say they had lost. Because even though their team had lost they were proud of them. Me and my classmate were astonished by the united spirit of football in Portugal. It was something we didn't have in Estonia.

On weekends our explorative thirst was fully filled. We went to the ocean beaches at least fifteen times. We went to Sintra once. Without any guide. Everybody in Portugal knows about Sintra. One man told us that even for them Sintra is the most beautiful place they can't stop wonder at. See for yourselves. These pictures speak for themselves. Diverse houses, streets with stone pavement, small shops for tourists filled with souvenirs, endless hills, not to mention the blue sky staying blue many, many days.

Offcourse, we didn't spend days having fun and taking sunbaths. We worked hard and in some days we stayed at home after work learning new features and thinking about the projects we had. One of the projects we were working on, a small internet shop selling cheap jewellery for young people. The other one, a website for gym. It was more like an engine designed with simplicity to rapidly make any small changes in and sell to several gyms interested in having their own website. Although our mentor wasn't really interested in helping us in most things, eventually, we managed to finish two of these websites. I have gained a lot of experience. So does my classmate who was working with design.

This trip taught us more than anything else we have ever done. It was some kind of a life lesson. After getting home we have very good picture of what we should aspire to do in our future career to achieve a success. It is one of the main reasons other students who are going to do a practical work should bear in mind. And who knows, maybe it's their chance to change their way of looking at their life.

The main thing about living in Europe is being able to travel all over. It's not necessary to go thousands of kilometres just to see something you've never seen or experienced before. Each country has something that can amaze. Portugal sure does. That's where me and my classmate have been to. Some people say that USA is the land of opportunity. But people change so countries do. And we were happy _ __ such a great chance to live and work in Portugal for two months. Thanks to the European Union's vocational training programme «Leonardo da Vinci», (incomplete sentence). Living without parents and girlfriends for a long period of time – the first challenge that comes to mind leaving your homeland (this doesn't make sense). But not for us. We were longing for work. Work in other country? Even better!

Despite all the worries concerning our trip, we managed to get used to living in Portugal, its people, the language they speak. In their way of life, we adapted more easily we had expected. After __ first three days being there we knew the streets around our apartment. Having _ map we explored some area within the city of Lisbon. And, surely, good knowledge in english played a great part in everything from living to working. No doubt, portugese language is one of the most used languages in the World. And, I must say, it is fast to learn. Offcourse, we didn't have much time to learn it good enough. But speaking portugese was vital in some cases. In cases when we didn't have any chance to find someone who speaks english (incomplete sentences). Imagine an old portugese man fishing at the ocean bank. Do you think he might speak english? I think not. Having that idea I always carried a small book with common portugese words and expressions I was using a lot.